What is the reason behind naming some Englishmen as Mr. Long, Mr. Black, Mr. Water etc?

Question

With due respect to them, I express my curiosity only. Since the words like Black, Long, Water, Rain, Bake etc have a normal mening, do they keep their names for the same reason ( i.e. with same meaning)? Or are there something Christianity behind their names?

Answer 1

The Poles and Russians already used the hard names with the rest of the alphabet. The English went with the KISS method of adopting names...easier for the parson to spell that way.

Answer 2

Back in the day, people didn't have last names. However, eventually the government wanted to tax people, which required a more detailed sense of identity so that John at the end of the long road, John near the black tree, and John at the water mill didn't get confused. So they took surnames that would easily identify them: John Long, John Black, John Water.

Answer 3

Nothing to do with religion.

When the period of time came that people had to choose a last name, it was usually associated with their profession or location or part of their common name.  For instance, one of my lines surnames is Hemphill and it came from those that grew hemp on a hill.

One line's name is Tyner and it was from those that lived on the river Tynes.

Answer 4

From

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...

Long Name Meaning and History

English and French: nickname for a tall person, from Old English lang, long, Old French long ‘long’, ‘tall’ (equivalent to Latin longus).

Black Name Meaning and History

Scottish and English: from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’ (Old English blæc, blaca), a nickname given from the earliest times to a swarthy or dark-haired man.

Water Name Meaning and History

1) English: variant of Walter, representing the normal medieval pronunciation of the name.

2) English and German (Rhineland): topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of water, Middle English, Low German water.

There are hundreds of surnames like Baker, Carpenter, Cook, Fletcher, Fowler, Smith . . . which mean the original person to have that surname was a baker, carpenter, cook, etc.

Answer 5

it could be that they had their names changed when they moved to here or where ever you may be due to people understanding it or pronouncing it better my family's last name was changed when they moved from germany both parents great grandparents. they wanted to "Americanise" it. from schultz to brown and from Schön to schoen

Answer 6

im not sure but another add on to your list could be mr. bean